If you’re a regular reader of my blog you know that I’m on what seems like a neverending quest to figure out who the Dolan’s in Patrick Dolan’s reinstated probate file were. The quest has sent me in circles like a crazed character in a Looney Tunes cartoon. A Little Background Patrick Dolan died in 1905. But, his probate was not settled before the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco. The probate proceedings were refiled by his niece, Mary…

I don’t know how this got passed me. I was web surfing the other day and found that the Portuguese Genealogical & Historical Society of Hawaii now has a website. You can visit them at: PGHSH. The website includes information about their current location, hours, and contact information. If visiting the society in person, be sure to inquire beforehand as they have to make arrangements to let you in. The website has a list of ships that went to Hawaii,…

You may be surprised to learn that I can read foreign language genealogy records…in five languages, no less, despite the fact that I don’t know any foreign languages. How was I supposed to know back in the 1980s when I declined to take a foreign language elective in high school that it would come back to haunt me? It never occurred to me that beyond reading street signs and menu items I would need a foreign language. But then, genealogy…

Why did I choose my great grandfather, Theodoro Pacheco, for the Kindred Spirit Ancestor challenge? Theodoro had a secret. Through research that I fleshed it out. He became more than a name and dates. His secret is why he is my kindred spirit ancestor. A Child Uprooted Theodore was born in 1876 in the village of Achada. It’s a small village on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. He was the last child of Anna Jacinta de…

Tonight’s Saturday Night Genealogy Challenge from Randy’s GeneaMusings.com blog is based on a school children challenge called the 100 Word Challenge. You start with the prompt “The Most Interesting Ancestor I Have” and fill in the rest. ======= The most interesting ancestor I have is Maria (de Braga) Pacheco Smith. Born in the Azores, she migrated to Hawaii as a child in 1882. She helped smuggle her husband to Oakland, California around 1907 when he contracted leprosy. 9 months pregnant,…